Coalescing existing maritime competencies for collective capacity building and capacity enhancement against non-traditional threats

The world heavily depends on sea-borne trade for its continued existence and allows all countries to participate in the global marketplace in the high seas.Undoubtedly the economic and political affairs of South Asia have been dominated by the sea.The Indian Ocean covers 20 percent of the earth and it is ranked the largest water body in the World. IOR comprises 38 littoral states, 24 Ocean territories and 17 landlocked countries.

Indian Ocean region

Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has emerged as the world’s major energy and trade route.I recollect here what Dr. Ash Carter, US Secretary of Defence, said in 2015 at the Shangri-La Dialogue after visiting the Singapore strait in a P-8 surveillance aircraft with Singaporean Defence Minister Ng. What he said was, “what I saw were fully laden oil tankers, one after another, moving towards the East. And similarly, empty oil tankers moving in other directions.

That day I realized how much China, Japan and South Korea depend on Arabian Gulf oil and it was an eye opener for me. Please remember that 15.2 million barrels of oil are transported daily via this sea route.

Crude oil transported daily in the world

The IOR Littorals are concerned about the vulnerability in the region due to various non- traditional maritime security threats such as piracy, maritime terrorism, climate change, IUU Fishing, illegal immigration and smuggling of arms and drugs.As described by Robert D. Kaplan in his book ‘Monsoon’, in world maps used in America, the Western Hemisphere is at the centre while the Indian Ocean is all but omitted.

Monsoon: IO and the future of American power

This was very much relevant in the 20th Century, but not in the 21st Century as the focus has fundamentally changed. Kaplan has identified a few countries as ‘Monsoon Asia’, which includes India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Oman, Bangladesh and Tanzania.He explained how important these countries are to American power and firmly believes that this area will be winning or losing grounds of democracy, energy independence and religious freedom.There are currently two main sources of insecurity in the Indian Ocean. The first is the instability of some of the littoral and hinterland states. To a certain degree both sea-based terrorism and maritime piracy threatens the security of international shipping.Moreover, sea-based terrorism can also be aimed against land target.Out of non-traditional maritime security threats, I am going to focus on drug trafficking.Drug traffickers have extensively used the sea route to take advantage of the incapability of most Navies to allocate 100 percent surveillance. Unless intelligence is very accurate and timely, apprehension of the smuggled drugs will be a tough task.

Heroin smuggling vessel

The Sri Lankan fishing fleet consists of 30,470 motorized boats. Out of this, around 4,000 boats are engaged in deep sea fishing and are capable of remaining more than one month out at sea.

Despite Sri Lanka Navy’s presence and apprehension of very large quantities of drugs, mainly heroin, it continued to come into the island nation through sea routes, now identified as “Southern Route”.Most of the apprehensions by SLN involved ocean-going wooden hull vessels loaded with drugs at Makran coast, smuggled from heroin factories in Afghanistan.These vessels sail southerly from Makran coast, pass south of Maldives territorial waters, reach the equator and remain drifting in high seas. The smugglers are smart enough to always stay in international waters and if any warship approaches them, they will just dump their heroin overboard.It is an extremely difficult task for ship Captains to approach the vessels in darkness and send their VBSS (Vessel Boarding Search and Seizure) teams to board them.On the Northern route, the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) in anti-piracy operations, Headquartered in Bahrain confirmed that more than 22,000 tons of illegal narcotics, much of it destined to fund terrorism, has been seized in the Northern Indian Ocean, but the narcotics were destroyed by throwing overboard and the vessels were allowed to return to home ports.The heroin trade, born in the poppy fields of Afghanistan, is a major source of revenue for extreme groups. With the Taliban becoming rulers of Afghanistan, we cannot expect anything good in terms of drug smuggling.In Sri Lanka, as per estimates of the Dangerous Drugs Prevention Authority, strong heroin addicts consume four to eight milligrams of heroin per day.Sri Lanka has approximately 40,000 heroin addicts. Due to the close-knit family system, if a child is addicted to heroin, he or she will be reported to the authorities for possible rehabilitation. So, the figures are fairly accurate.

So, we know Sri Lanka’s annual consumption of heroin. That is approximately 116.8 kilograms (8mg x 40,000 x 365). As a rule of thumb, it is estimated that law enforcement agencies detect only 10 percent of drugs and contraband passing between borders.What is surprising is that very large quantities on the ‘Southern Route’ were detected by the Sri Lanka Navy and on a few occasions by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. A total of 1,017 kilograms of heroin, 126 kgs of ICE and 88 kgs of Hashish were confiscated by the SLN this year alone. If the rule of thumb is applied, 10170 kgs of Heroin, 1,260 kgs of ICE and 880 kgs of Hashish may be entering Sri Lanka.You see that this figure far exceeds Sri Lankan consumption. Where is these drugs’ final destination? Surprisingly, we have not detected any sizeable amount of drugs leaving our shores to third party countries. We have to work hard and work together to find answers for this issue.In the meantime, we have to stay one step ahead when working with drug smugglers. They have money, power and the latest technology. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for nations to work together, sharing knowledge, expertise and training. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Sri Lanka Navy jointly conduct periodic training programs on VBSS, evidence collecting and identification of new types of synthetic drugs. Specially smaller Island nations in the Indian Ocean who have only a coast guard are required to improve their VBSS Capabilities.

The coast guard and Marine Police personnel from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros were trained on VBSS at the Sri Lanka Navy’s elite Special Boats Squadron (SBS) quarters under the watchful eyes of highly trained and competent SBS instructors.The SLN ship-in-box training facility was developed to offer the real feeling of climbing aboard a ship out at sea, to these foreign trainees.When we talk about enhancing existing maritime competencies, the relationship between the Indian Navy and SLN and also Indian Coast Guard and Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) is unique. All officers take their Sub Lieutenant courses, specialization courses, staff courses and ultimately NDC at Indian Naval Institutions. This relationship kept our Navy highly professional. If we have done well in eradicating terrorism from Sri Lanka, it is due to the sound knowledge we received in India.On July 9, 2014, the National Security Advisor (NSA) of India, Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka and Defence Minister of Maldives signed a trilateral Maritime Cooperation Agreement in New Delhi, which greatly helped Sri Lanka and Maldives enhance their competencies at sea on handling oil or chemical spills and disaster relief operations.

A Coast Guard exercise titled ‘Exercise Dosti’ was also conducted and today all three countries have compatible oil spill response equipment. With India in the lead, we saw the results of these exercises when the super tanker MT New Diamond, carrying 270,000 tons of crude oil, on its voyage from Kuwait to Vizag, caught fire in the South East of Sri Lanka.The ICG and Indian Navy, with the support of Sri Lanka Navy and an international salvage company, was able to douse the fire and tow the ship to safety avoiding a major oil spill.Now Exercise Dosti is carried out based on a road map to enhance cooperation. Further work is carried out based on table top exercises, including legal and policy issues related to piracy.Even though the agreement, first signed in 2014, went into cold storage for six years due to various reasons, this Maritime Security Dialogue was revived, in August this year, with the meeting of top security leadership of three countries, in Sri Lanka. Now the intention to invite both Mauritius and Seychelles, to join India in support of a Coastal Surveillance Radar System to Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles, is a welcome signal. Similarly, India will support Sri Lanka’s existing Automatic Identification System (AIS).

Currently the Information Fusion Centre (IFC) for Indian Ocean Region, Gurugram fuses the white shipping information collected by the Coastal Surveillance Radar System and AIS and shares this with the other two countries.It is heartening to see that India has signed agreements to share white shipping information with 26 countries.

These facilities, in sharing information, has helped all three countries (India, Maldives and Sri Lanka) to overcome security challenges out at sea including acts of terrorism, piracy, drugs and weapons smuggling, human trafficking, IUU fishing and maritime pollution.

It is therefore very important for India to work with other smaller nations in the Indian Ocean to improve and enhance maritime competencies for collective capacity building.I am failing in my duty if I do not recollect, for the benefit of this august gathering, ‘Operation Rainbow’, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard’s actions to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Sri Lankans affected by the Tsunami on Boxing Day, December 26, 2004.

Lasting over two and half months, this remains the largest relief operation undertaken by India outside the country.The architect and executor of this operation was Indian Navy’s then Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSMis. I salute you Sir for saving thousands of innocent lives in my country.

It reminds me of what late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadiragamar said of Indian support during a critical hour. “Friend in need, a friend in deed.” I wish Goa Maritime Conclave all the best.